Friday 12 September 2014

Slit Woods, A little Piece of Paradise

Come walk with me…….

Here I go again, back to my roots.

Hot summer days and family fun and picnics. We would pack the car, we had a very large green picnic blanket, a little gas camping stove always a flask of boiling water to make a cup of tea, freshly baked buns or stottie cake a tin of Pek chopped pork a jar of home made pickled beetroot loads of homemade cakes, biscuits home-grown tomatoes (you get the picture). deck chairs Dingy and towels.

We always travelled on Picnics as a family, Nanna and Granda, Aunt Irene, Uncle George, cousins Stephen and Susan, Mam Dad and my two brothers Alan and Russell.

We would head up through Durham, through Crook, then on towards Stanhope Ford which was somewhere we would often stop for a while before moving on to Eastgate then through to Westgate.

Just as you get into Westgate there is a little hidden paradise called Slit Woods, not easy to find but when we did it soon became a firm favourite.

Wednesday….

Chris had took a holiday from work, in truth he wasn’t too well but by the afternoon he was wanting some fresh air so we decided we would head off to see if we could find Slit Wood again.

It took some finding as we passed it once and had to double back but in the end we arrived. Still as beautiful today, there is a burn that runs through the woods which is running down bank and it has little waterfalls along the way.

slit wood1

Isn’t it gorgeous? you can see that is goes down in stages forming shallow pools, as children we would grab our bathing costumes and play in the shallow pools, once I had children of my own they also played in the pools cooling off in the hot summer sunshine.

A place to sit….

Of course not all of the adults would get in the water with us so they needed somewhere to sit and possibly dip there toes in the water for a paddle and to cool down, just a little further up the bank and they would find a sitting place.

slit wood2

Next year

Time for to introduce Grandson Jack to Slit Woods, I think he would love it.

Maybe I will be the Adult who sits on the rocks and dips in my toes to cool off just as my Grandparents did whilst watching over me having fun.

slit wood3

Until my next walk….

Jak Signature

8 comments:

FiestyCrafter (Tina) said...

What a beautiful spot! We love to visit waterfalls too. Only been scared once by bears..lol.

Cheryl W. said...

It looks so peaceful and untouched by humans. What a lovely place!

littlebee said...

What a beautiful place Jak, no wonder you wanted to go back and for Jack to make this place special too. Sue x

lycar123 said...

Such a lovely place and so unspoilt too. I know my grandsons would love it there too and Jack certainly will . More memories in the making . X
Lynne t.

Maryann Laursen said...

WAUW this is definitely an awesome place Jak, and it reminds me of my childhood too, where we used to go on our bike and get down to our countys only hills at all here, which is Rebild Bakker (hills). And often in the summer, we went a little more, where there was a big lake, we used to swim in in the summer. Rebild Bakker is where the 4th of July is always held here with the Danish/ Americans every year, so many might have seen them on TV as there´s normally being sent from there every year, like the Rotyal family is almost always there too then, and I was soo lucky to live very close by in the middle of our biggest forrest here, so I had it all as a child, so this sure put up some good memories too.

Janette said...

Awww Jak, youv'e done it again, brought a tear to my eyes, what a beautiful place, and the picnic sounds just like the one my mam would have done for us,Pek ham indeed...there's a blast from the past..lol... thanks for sharing..xx

mena.ward.blogspot.com said...

That looks beautiful jak I am sure your grandson will love it too. Xx
Philomena
County Galway
Ireland

Wynn said...

Awwww Jak that is so beautiful and made me homesick. I live in Cyprus but come from the North East. I'm going to tell my daughter about this and I hope she'll take my grandchildren along....they'll love it. I will be visiting when I'm able to get back to the UK. Thanks for this .....much appreciated. Wynn xx